Another human. Of course it was another human.
Two humans, both possessing his magic while he had none of it. It was intolerable.
The first - that insane human mage who claimed to have been to the black city - had betrayed him and stolen his orb. That could almost have been his own fault, if one looked at it in the proper light, since he had handed over the orb willingly enough. This second human, though, should not have been involved at all.
It was infuriating that he had to deal with a human to reclaim what was his from a different human. And this human came surrounded by yet more humans, humans who looked on mages with suspicion, which meant he had to tread carefully when he would much rather simply take the woman and force her to do what he needed to reclaim his orb.
He had no idea what the magic of the mark would do to a human; he didn't know what the one who called himself a magister had done to the orb to create such a thing. In a way, he didn't much care what became of either of them as long as he got back what was his. He didn't think the humans in this place would appreciate it if the woman never woke up, so he tried to preserve her life.
The mark was draining power from her, and he was able to stop that, but he had no further success. He had tried everything he could think of to remove the mark - his magic - from this human's hand. First he had tried to transfer it to himself, when that didn't work he tried simply to dispel it. That didn't work either, and only seemed to cause pain to the human who lay unconscious on the floor of the chantry basement.
Finally, he gave up, and left. He had to remind himself not to stamp angrily up the stairs; it didn't fit in with the mild mannered and harmless apostate he had presented himself as. The humans here were all on edge, and it wouldn't take much for them to decide that he needed to be detained as well.
He stopped in the chantry to offer a report on his progress to one of the guards there, sure that it would be repeated to those who wished to know.
If stamping on the stairs was out of character, relieving his anger by sending lightning bursts into the surrounding peaks was completely out of the question. His anger, so tightly contained and constrained by the role he had assumed in order to gain access to the human who wore his magic on her hand, demanded that he destroy something. He headed toward the front gate, thinking to expend some of his anger on the training field, but was stopped before he reached his goal.
"How is she? Do you think she'll make it?" The speaker was a dwarf who cradled a crossbow in his arms and wore a supply pack on his back.
He shrugged slightly. "I do not know. For now, the mark no longer drains her own power. It may be enough to allow her to awaken. Without know what caused the mark to be placed on her in the first place, it is hard to say if this will make a difference. It certainly cannot hurt."
The dwarf nodded. "Well, if there's nothing else you can do here, how do you fancy a trip out to the valley? I was going to go help the Seeker's troops out, there are plenty of demons to go around.
He grinned at this, and nodded. "Absolutely. I am ready to leave now, if you wish."
Together, the apostate mage and the dwarf headed out of Haven and toward the Valley of Sacred Ashes.